[Baltimore Sun] As Austin Hays slumps, Orioles’ brass remains confident in All-Star: ‘He’s still a huge part of this team’
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The Orioles aren’t giving up on Austin Hays.
The left fielder, who is coming off an All-Star 2023 campaign, has been mired in a brutal slump to start the season. Hays is 3-for-35 (.086 batting average) at the plate, including an 0-for-26 skid he broke with a bloop single Saturday.
The 28-year-old has, at times, been a streaky hitter, but the slump is the worst he’s experienced since becoming a staple in the Orioles’ lineup in 2021. As he’s struggled, he’s temporarily lost his starting job to Colton Cowser, a top prospect who is enjoying an early-season breakout.
But the Orioles’ decision-makers aren’t ready to write off Hays, who is starting in left field and batting eighth Monday against the Minnesota Twins, with the hope that he will soon climb out of the quicksand he’s engrossed in.
“He’s going to be fine,” executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said Saturday. “This is all going to work itself out and we’ll look up and everybody is going to play a lot, and Austin Hays is going to have another really good season, too.”
Shortly after Elias made those comments, Hays recorded his first hit since March 30 and also hit a 100 mph lineout to right field — perhaps his best at-bat this season. Co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller said the hope is that that hit will open the floodgates for Hays to burst out of his slump.
“Now it’s going to start to build,” Fuller said Sunday. “He’s doing some really good work. If this was in the middle of July, we would say: ‘Oh, he’s good, he’s put up really good numbers so far.’ It’s at the beginning of the year, and we’ll work through it.”
Elias said one of the “luxuries” of the Orioles’ deep roster and bench is that good players — like Hays right now, Ramón Urías and Jorge Mateo — aren’t getting everyday at-bats despite being worthy of them.
When you have quantity, you tend to have a hot hand and a cold hand sometimes,” Elias said. “We have a ton of talented players, all 13 of these position players we have right now are starting-caliber guys. It’s not easy for our manager, but it’s something that we value. [Brandon Hyde is] going to rotate through guys based on matchups, [who is] healthy, day to day, a little bit of hot and cold in there.”
Hyde on Monday also put his faith in Hays, with the sixth-year skipper saying he wants to find opportunities for Hays to get back on track. He noted that Hays’ unusual spring training, which included him hitting .138 while missing time with an illness, is playing a factor in his rough start to the regular season.
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“You never want to see a guy go through a slow start,” Hyde said. “That, really for me, is what it is with Austin: a little bit of a slow start after an interrupted spring training. I want to believe that he’s going to get it going. I’m going to try to find ways to try to get him going. It’s not easy, because what Colton’s done what he’s done so far and [Cedric Mullins is] one of the best center fielders in the game and [Anthony] Santander is a 30-home run guy in right. I’m trying to find ways to get Austin going for us. He’s still a huge part of this team.”
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A hallmark of the 2022 and 2023 Orioles was Hyde’s mix-and-match lineups. While there is less movement this year with more everyday players, Hyde said he will continue to get his bench players time, including Hays, who will continue to start against lefties and the occasional righty when another player needs a day off. Santander is getting a breather Monday, opening a spot for Hays to start.
“There’s going to be four guys who aren’t going to play on a nightly basis,” Hyde said. “You never want to bury somebody, and I’m very sensitive to that. I want to try to play as many people as I can while trying to win major league baseball games. I want to keep everybody involved.
“I’m just going to do the best I can to mix and match all year.”
This story might be updated.
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